First Published: 1998
SPOILERS!!!
Patrick and Margaret are a young American married couple who are living in Kenya. Patrick is a doctor who is investigating equatorial diseases and also works in the hospital. Margaret used to be a photographer for a newspaper, but she left everything to be with Patrick. The couple are acquainted with a British couple, Diana and Arthur. Then Patrick comes to tell her that he and Arthur have talked about reaching the summit of Mount Kenya, and Margaret doesn't decline the suggestion. They are to climb there with another couple too, Saartje and Willam van Buskirk, who are Dutch. Margaret is not really friends with Diana or Arthur.
Before the day of the climb, there is an incident with the woman who looks after Diana's children, Adhiambo. She has been raped, and Diana brings her to Margaret, who keeps her in her cottage overnight. Adhiambo refuses to be examined or go to the police, and when James, Diana's servant, comes to Margaret the next day, the man talks to her, and Margaret learns that two men raped the woman. Margaret and James take Adhiambo home, and Margaret discovers how poor Adhiambo is.
When the three couples start the climb, Margaret realises that she is not fit enough and lags behind. Arthur tries to help her, but she is despised for her slowness by the women. When they stop in the hut that they are to stay overnight, Margaret's mattress is next to Arthur's, and at some point during the night Margaret lets out a gasp when she feels something. Arthur says that it is rats, and he reaches for her hand, and Margaret is thankful for his comfort. The next day when Margaret wakes up, she realises that she and Arthur are still holding hands. That doesn't sit well with Diana, and she can hear her and Arthur having a row. Patrick is not happy either, and Margaret tries to explain that it was just very innocent like a child finding the hand of an adult.
They start the climb in the glacier. They are all tied together in a line with the porters leading the way. Then at some point Diana unties herself and tries to walk faster. Everybody cries to her, but the woman turns a deaf ear, and to eveybody's horror Diana falls from a ravine to her death. Arthur cries and sobs, and they all decide to return and call the emergency services. This is a turning point for Margaret. The other woman, Saaratje, tells her that the reason why Diana was upset and died was Margaret and her hand holding with Arthur. Funnily enough, she doesn't blame her husband. At home Patrick also tells her that he thinks that if she had openly refused Arthur's attentions, Diana would have been alive now.
The relationship between Patrick and Maragaret suffer, and even though they try to work on it, there is a tension that wasn't there before. Feeling bored and restless, Margaret finds a job as a photographer at a newspaper, and Patrick is not too delighted because the paper is too controversial. Yet, Margaret enjoys the job. Then Patrick has to leave for two weeks, and Margaret stays behind. She meets an attractive Asian journalist and after their first job, he tells her that he would like to do an article about the slums. Margaret remembers Adhiambo and tells him that she could talk to a woman who for some money could talk to him. So now Margaret is in a mission to find Adhiambo.
I found the beginning of the book quite slowly, and I didn't expect the twist that it threw us with Diana dying. I wonder what direction we will be taken to now.
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